


Ghost In The Shell

by CardboarianNights



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: 50 year old jesse and gabe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Android/Cyborg!Gabe, Blackwatch Co-Commander!McCree, Jesse is aged up and has no deadlock ties, M/M, Mutual Pining, a few concepts do sneak its way in though, adults having complicated relationships, has nothing to do with ghost in the shell or the recent movie, jesse has a bad crush on robo!Gabe, mostly from how long it took for the geezers to admit they have a crush on each other in the story, rating if for later chapters, slowish burn, to an actual relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-30
Updated: 2017-04-05
Packaged: 2018-10-13 00:17:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10502475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CardboarianNights/pseuds/CardboarianNights
Summary: Gabriel's processors booted up quickly, taking him out of charging mode on the dock he fell asleep standing on, his joints quickly unlocking once the system detected he was sufficiently conscious enough to catch himself from falling off the metal platform.He is an android; The only part of him that was human was the brain safely hidden away in the titanium that was his braincase plus the metal of the robot’s head and the rest of him was basically a twenty-five year old omnic body repurposed in the Crisis to keep Gabriel Reyes alive after he was killed on the frontlines. Unlike Genji Shimada, he was extremely limited in his ability to be transferred since most of his body was blown into a gory spray, and Angela Ziegler was too busy with her other work to spend much time working on a solution to his problem. He kind of insisted on her prioritizing that over sculpting him a new body and he felt like kicking himself for making that stupid suggestion since she was still working on it for twenty-five years on and off because of it.((Note:The fic has been cancelled but left up for archiving purposes.))





	1. Roaming in between the worlds of sleep and awake

“Mornin’ Gabe!” The fifty year old fucking cowboy drawled as he popped into Gabriel's room, the only hand print that his door would register since he didn't need one. How long had he known Jesse McCree now? Twenty-five years now? Sounded about right for the number of birthdays he celebrated with the man in Blackwatch.

Gabriel's processors booted up quickly, taking him out of charging mode on the dock he fell asleep standing on, his joints quickly unlocking once the system detected he was sufficiently conscious enough to catch himself from falling off the metal platform. 

He is an android; The only part of him that was human was the brain safely hidden away in the titanium that was his braincase plus the metal of the robot’s head and the rest of him was basically a twenty-five year old omnic body repurposed in the Crisis to keep Gabriel Reyes alive after he was killed on the frontlines. Unlike Genji Shimada, he was extremely limited in his ability to be transferred since most of his body was blown into a gory spray, and Angela Ziegler was too busy with her other work to spend much time working on a solution to his problem. He kind of insisted on her prioritizing that over sculpting him a new body and he felt like kicking himself for making that stupid suggestion since she was still working on it for twenty-five years on and off because of it.

Gabriel was mounted on the modified body of a simple, bipedal, omnic assault trooper but it didn't cause as much trouble as he originally thought it would with Torbjorn’s constant upgrades to make it more flexible and move organically like he would expect. Still, twenty-five years in a sub-par omnic body while the likes of Genji Shimada ran around with abandon had him salty as shit on some days but he had ways to cope that didn't involve him blowing up the Zurich building in a fit of rage.

Jesse sauntered on over to him, wearing his usual red flannel when he ditched his serape, jeans with chaps on over them, cowboy boots and a proud stetson on his head. He regarded Gabriel with a lopsided grin that instantly had Gabe suspicious of his co-commander of Blackwatch when he stepped off the platform, his rubber-soled feet tapping lightly against the tile. 

“What’s that shit-eating grin for, McCree.” Gabriel's robotic voice spoke with an annoyed tone that made the cowboy immediately raise his hands in a passive showing.

“Just admiring a handsome fella as he wakes up fer the day, Gabe.” Jesse chuckles lightly with a sincere smile on his face.

“My face plate doesn't move, McCree.” Gabriel deadpanned as he crossed his metal arms over his metal chest while Jesse rested his thumbs on either side of that gaudy belt buckle that Gabe regretted buying for him as a joke in early years of Blackwatch.

“I know but I got an imagination that paints an expressive face ya and yer the handsomest fella I’ve ever met to this day.” 

Okay, Jesse McCree saw all the vids and pictures they all had of Gabriel before he had his brain transplant but Jesse was literally brought on to help him lead Blackwatch several months after he was turned into an android. Jesse never really knew Gabriel in the flesh first hand but still insisted on flirting with him shamelessly and they’ve had MANY fist fights over the years because of it. Gabe never believed Jesse was being sincere with his advances or was one of those creepy robot fetish people but they always seemed to get along anyways when Jesse kept the stupid one-liners to himself.

“Cute, but not interested at the moment.” Gabriel spoke dryly as he walked past Jesse and both of them headed out of the room, Jesse shutting the door behind him before catching up to Gabriel as he waited for him in the hallway. “So, what's this whole thing about?” He asked curiously as he kept his face plate facing forward rather than looking at the cowboy next to him as they walked together.

“‘Fraid I dunno what yer referrin’ to, Sweetpea.” Jesse answered in a sing-song manner that made it abundantly clear that he knew why Gabriel had to go to the medical ward first thing in the morning when he was left in the dark.

Fucking figures.

“I’m kicking you into the swimming pool if this is a prank, McCree.” Gabriel threatened with a scarily monotone voice that likely made his co-commander tense up next to him but having a limited visual focus certainly didn't help him enjoy taking the piss out of McCree's cheery demeanor.

“Can I at least have a kickboard thrown to me, in that case?” Jesse asked sheepishly, likely twiddling his index fingers together like he usually does when they joke around like this.

“No.”

Jesse put his hand to his heart in a dramatic fashion like he’s just been shot, Gabriel actually watching him as he did the whole thing just for amusement. Then Jesse suddenly grabbed his arm and pulled him in close, narrowly missing the staircase and taking an unpleasant fall down it that could potentially kill him if he hit his head incorrectly. Jesse chuckled nervously as he swung them around and released Gabriel so he stayed on his left now that he was actively acting as his bodyguard to protect him from blood-thirsty staircases. “Right. ‘Shit side vision’. Forgot about that.” Jesse cleared his throat before placing a hand on Gabriel's back, guiding him down the hall the other way from the staircase.

Gabriel groaned, he should know the layout of the building by heart now and he was dumb for letting himself get distracted like that. Jesse kept his hand on Gabe’s upper back as they continued to walk at a leisurely pace towards the med wing, just chit chatting about anything and everything to fill the void of silence.

“So, I sold two of my holdins’ lately an’ I bought myself a nice property out in the west.” Jesse drawled happily, making Gabriel remember that they were both getting closer to retirement age and that he shouldn’t expect Jesse to hang around this place once he hits sixty-two.

“Is that so.” Gabriel replied neutrally, not really sure how he felt about that but knew better than to try to interfere in his second-in-command’s life.

“So…” Jesse asked, holding out on the ‘o’ for a bit before bringing the hand up on Gabe’s back to drape over his shoulder and pulling their sides together. “What ‘bout you, Boss?”

Gabriel paused for a moment to try to decrypt the meaning in that before simply asking: “What do you mean?”

“Well, in a couple of years, we’ll both be ready to retire. Ya got any plans?” He asked with his usual handsome smile, and Gabriel let out a sigh.

“I’m a robot, McCree. You honestly think I can just simply retire and go LIVE so where outside of Overwatch?” It feels like they always have this conversation nowadays…

Jesse frowns at him in a disapproving manner but Gabriel is distracted by suddenly becoming hyper aware of how loud his footsteps sound in the hallway as they walked together. His thoughts go to the first few weeks after he was released from the med ward and how he constantly stopped in long hallways - the sounds of heavy metal on title, echoing, brought him back to the war and he would quickly check his six. If just the sound of his footsteps kept him on the edge then how would the world react to an old assault bot going for a walk in a residential neighborhood? He doesn't look like an omnic and he bets that the history books and movies haven't forgotten what the assault drones look like either…

They don't speak another word to each other for the rest of the walk to the med bay and he doesn’t blame Jesse for not wanting to start a fight with him, for once. It was a difficult thing to talk about and he understood that Jesse didn’t want him to be cooped up in black ops until his dying days, if he even COULD die, that is.

He’ll probably be moved out of Blackwatch when he was sixty and put into a special committee or something that oversees Blackwatch missions but he mostly does more paperwork than he already does just to keep his pension and room. Either way, his life belonged to Overwatch as long as he had this shitty robot body.

They turned the corner together to the med bay and that’s when Gabriel noticed the large amount of people and higher ups murmuring in the hallways leading to the bay. All of them wearing dress unifor- are they holding champagne glasses? What the fuck?? Why are they holding a party near the med bay instead of the designated areas?

Jesse’s arm moved off his shoulder and he gently pushed him forward through the crowd as they parted for them. Did Morrison get sick or something? Was some higher up’s wife going into labor maybe?

How the hell was Jesse McCree acting so calm while nudging the suits aside so they could get to the med bay?

“McCree, we should just come back another time.” Gabriel whispered to Jesse with his robotic voice and the cowboy just shook his head with a knowing smile on his lips.

“Nah. Just ignore them. They’re just here for the show.”

Gabriel paused at that before Jesse placed both hands on his shoulders and made him march into the med bay, where even MORE people were flocking around like it was a goddamn charity event and not a medical facility! WHAT. THE. SHIT.

Even the DOCTORS were wearing suits!!

“Oh!” Jack handed his glass to someone he was talking to, dressed up to a ten in his Strike Commander dress outfit that he only wore for huge media events, and rushed over to Gabriel and Jesse. “Gabe!” He looked happier than the day the Omnic Crisis was declared over and he came to tell him the news as he was recovering in his robotic body in the medical ward.

“What the hell is going on, Jack?! Why are you fucking hosting a party in the medical ward?!” Gabriel hissed quietly to the Strike Commander, growing even more angry as Jack’s eyes widened in surprise before looking over at Jesse, who merely snickered in amusement.

“No shit? We actually managed to keep you in the dark about something for once?” Jack whispered to himself in amazement before grinning like a madman and standing up straight. “Everyone! May I have your attention, please!” He announced loudly, drawing attention to himself as the chatter in the medbay ceased and the people out in the hall moved inside the med bay. “As many of you know, Gabriel Reyes was the leader of the original Strike Team that helped usher in an era of peace, losing his body in the final days of the Crisis but resilient enough that he survived a full brain transplant into one of the few drone bodies we were able to salvage. The first human to survive a full brain transplant out in a warzone!”

The applause was loud enough that Jack had to hold his hands up to quiet down the doctors that were there that day along with their medical cohorts that were excited for their senior’s efforts. He said that more to raise the morale for the medical team than Gabriel but he wasn’t going to argue or be pessimistic about the abysmally low protected success rate of the surgery, especially since they saved his life.

“Now, you all know that the techniques that saved Gabriel Reyes’ life has since then been used to save countless people around the world but we never intended for one of Overwatch’s founders to remain in the shell that is a constant reminder of the Crisis. No, for the man who survived and became an inspiration to all who see Overwatch as a beacon of hope, we planned to give him new life, a life he can truly call his own, and a body he can live out the rest of his days with all the sensory processes we all take for granted.” Jack then turned to Gabriel, with sincere pride in his eyes as the doctors behind him parted. “Gabe, it’s been a long time coming and we can’t apologize enough for the delays but… I want to present to you: your new body.”

Jack gently took Gabriel’s hand and lead him forward toward a large glass capsule, several monitors hooked up and beeping information while inside was a long surgical table with a body on it. He stood by Gabriel as Gabe’s optical sensors processed what he was seeing to his brain: Dark synthetic skin, a hairless head and face, body built strong and sturdy and thighs that could crush a man’s skull between them. It was his body. It was his body and it was breathing and looked like he was in a deep sleep. Gabriel was brought back to reality as he realized his metal fingers were pressed against the glass - that this wasn’t some out-of-body experience or lucid dreaming that was happening.

“I… It looks exactly like a human should.” Gabriel attempted to say with his synthetic voice to Jack, as if they were the only ones in the room and there was not a barrage of camera flashes being taken of this moment. “Where are the synthetic muscles? Should it not look more like Shimada’s body?”

Jack placed a hand on his back and lightly rubbed it, a very intimate gesture from a man he thought no longer wanted to be his friend decades ago. Was there no longer a massive divide between them or was he hoping this gift would be the olive branch he would need to make their friendship right again?

“This is the result of decades of research, including Shimada’s body prototype, Gabe. Angela and the others wouldn’t sign off on anything less worthy of a man who gave so much to see the peace we try to maintain today. You get the best of the best through many trials and errors. A perfect synthetic human body that the medical team can customize to your preference at anytime.” Jack spoke happily.

Gabriel turned his gaze back to the body, just marveling at it, unable to believe this wasn’t just a dream - a dream he had so many times in the past twenty five years. He blinked at that for a moment before turning, his gaze settling on McCree in the crowd. Right. Not a proper dream of his if he wasn’t here beside him.

“McCree?”

Jesse looked like Gabe shot his mother with how high his brows went when Gabriel called to him. 

“What are you looking at, McCree? Come here, Dumbshit.” Gabriel practically laughed as the suddenly shy gunslinger rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly as eyes were suddenly on him when he slipped out of the crowd to join Jack and Gabe at the case. 

With McCree here, he felt much better, even with the gossiping going on as Jesse whistled softly when he looked at the body in the glass case. “So, you think there’s anything under those black boxers they got on ya, Gabe?” Jesse snickered as he whispered very softly into Gabriel’s auditory intake processor where his ears would be, if he had them.

“I hope.” Gabriel replied back quietly, equally immature as Jack covered his mouth to poorly disguise his laughter at the exchanged dick jokes.

“But, man, you always looked handsome in those photos but yer gonna be quite the catch once the med team moves yer brain to its new home.”

Gabriel rolled his eyes at that. “Oh? My charming personality didn't make me one already?” He asked sarcastically with his synthetic voice, drawing a fond chuckle out of the cowboy next to him.

“Gabriel Reyes, in any form, sets my heart a-racing, Darlin’, you know that.” Jesse winked playfully before his eyes went back to the body in front of them. “So, there’s obvious signs that the house is fully functional even without any lights on in the attic. How does that even work?” He drawled out loud, spurring the lead doctor on the project, Dr. Susie Jankson, to step forward to join the trio but on the opposite side of the case as the fanfare died down and everyone went back to their own cliques to talk and drink.

“Do you have any questions about your new body, Commander Reyes? I would be glad to enlighten you on anything you would like to know before we begin the transfer preparations.” She said with much excitement, taking Gabriel by surprise as he reeled back from that.

“Wait, wait! You’re transferring me today? After I just found out that this project I’ve been waiting for almost three decades isn't as dead in the water as I assume all this time?” Gabriel asked, Jack and Jesse looking at him as perplexed as the doctor before him.

“I - We assumed you would want to be moved as soon as possible, Commander.” Dr. Jankson spoke carefully, staying professional through the whole thing as Gabriel brought his hands up to cover his optic sensors to help calm himself. “Should we give you a day or two to mentally prepare, Commander?”

Jesse placed a hand on his shoulder. “Ya don't have to push yerself into this right away, Gabe.” He spoke reassuringly to his partner before looking at the kind doctor. “How ‘bout tomorrow? Gives us the night to celebrate and say goodbye to the old tin can with one last hoorah.”

The doctor smiled and nodded her head. “That sounds fine. We’ll talk details later in the evening but for now, let me give you the details on your new body, Commander Reyes.” 

Gabriel took the hands off his eyes, feeling relieved that Jesse was in tune with his hesitation for immediate action regarding his own body, and nodded his head as she started outlining the history of the body. Genji Shimada was not a brain transplant or even a full head transplant, but had his cybernetic body implanted into what remains of his body - the muscles, first of their kind with such fine tuned synergy to allow Shimada to move in ways he used to, took several surgical attempts over two years to bring the sophistication of the artificial tissue up to the levels it needed to be. That’s where they got the idea that they could build a fully synthetic body from the ground up and started researching into what could be developed and what needed to be grown in a lab from stem cells. Organs like the liver and kidneys were grown from stem cells while organs like the heart and lungs were synthetically made like Shimada’s muscular system. 

What took the most amount of time to get right was development of the spinal cord and the ability for the artificial skin to grow hair. The spinal cord he could understand them wanting to take the time to develop due to how critical it was that it function right but BODY HAIR?! Seriously?! 

“What’s wrong with an old-fashioned wig or hair implant?” Gabriel joked, drawing a chuckle from Jesse to his right. 

“Nothing, but we wanted to do everything correctly so you would smoothly be able to reintegrate into human society, accounting for the many expectations humans have for what constitutes as normal human body functions and hair growth is one of many we thought you would appreciate.” She answered professionally.

“How well will this body hold up?” Jack asked. “What will maintence look like for him going forward? Would illnesses still show the same symptoms in his body? What about immunizations? It wasn't something we had to worry about when he was a super soldier or with how isolated his brain is in his current body. Would he have to see a specialist for physicals and the like?”

The doctor walked over to pick up a data pad and projected a hologram of her current screen as she pulled up many lengthy and detailed charts and graphs. “Before we can even think about introducing vaccines and the likes to his body, Commander Reyes will be on a regimen of immunosuppressants for several months to make sure no part of the body rejects another part though the first month we will be keeping the commander's brain in its case while we graft his stem cells to the spine. If the body is to reject Reyes then it would be during the first month, likely during the first week where we introduce his stem cells to the body.”

“I get why the first week or so is important but why will I be restricted to my brain case for a whole month? You can just open it up right now, drug me up, take a bit of a nerve sample and close me back up like usual so I can still have freedom to walk around and do my job. Why is me being in the lab 24/7 for a month necessary if you can't attach me right away?” Gabriel crossed arms over his chest plate as he regarded the doctor’s plan with valid criticism. He didn't like the idea of being so exposed and unaware of anything going on around him for a day much less a whole month.

The doctor looked down at her datapad swiping her finger upwards to push a psychological profile before the three men. “It’s actually to psychologically restart your gross and fine motor skills, Commander. You’ve lived for almost twenty-five years in a body that does not need the brain to do more unconscious tasks like keeping several major body systems function like pumping blood or even taking in nutrition to survive. By leaving your brain in a prolonged state of isolation, in theory, it should make it easier to have your brain adapt the neglected functions back when we place your brain into your new body once we’re sure your brain won't be rejected.”

“This sounds like a shit deal to me.” Gabriel grumbled in annoyance. 

Without even looking, Gabriel knew that both men were scowling at him with various degrees of disapproval but they weren’t the ones going to get their brains left completely in the dark for a month. It would be so easy to kill him just by knocking his braincase to the floor much less have him in a place surrounded by drugs that would easily do the job if any assassin didn't want to make an accident report. Who knows what his enemies would do if they found out he would be so vulnerable, it made him sick with anxiety just thinking about it.

“Well, ‘bout that, Gabe. Jack and I will be guarding your brain fer a month, if you’re worried ‘bout being exposed.” Jesse brought up, drawing Gabriel’s attention to the cowboy.

“What?” It was more of a statement than a question, coming from Gabriel as he tried to comprehend the stupidity coming out of McCree's mouth.

“It’s like he said, Gabe. We’re taking a month off work to make sure nothing happens to you. Jesse gets the day shift and I cover the night shift so you have twenty four hour guard service.” Jack added with a smile. “Genji and Reinhardt volunteered to handle breaks and such as well so there’s no reason to think we’ll neglect ourselves or something like that.” 

Gabriel paused for a good few moments before swiftly turning to face Jesse. “How long have you known about this, McCree, that you have a damn guard rotation ready?” He growled in annoyance, making the cowboy put his hands up defensively as he chuckled in a nervous manner.

“Aww, Pumpkin, no need to be so jealous cause I was schemin’ behind yer back for the surprise.” Jesse teased, and Gabriel felt like he did it all on purpose since he couldn't deck him with all the suits around, much to his annoyance.

The doctor continued to brief them before Jack had to call it since he had to go to a meeting. The formal briefing for the transplant would take place around 5pm over dinner with the team of specialists and doctors, a sort of ‘last dinner’ before Gabe would be disconnected from the world for a whole month. Anxiety and worry pulled on Gabriel's focus as he ran through so many doomsday scenarios walking mechanically behind McCree when they finally left the med ward.

People were stopping them in the hallway to congratulate Gabriel and wishing him well during the operation, people he never met before and the attention was kind of overwhelming at the moment. The more people stopped them, the more aware he was of how many people knew he was going to be vulnerable. It dawned on him that he just might be shaking the hand of his assassin and was glad he didn't have a face to betray him right now.

He was utterly drained when he found himself walking right into Jesse’s back and heard a door close right behind his back with a click. Gabe’s optic sensors detected gaudy wild west-themed decor in his immediate proximity on the walls and realized they were in Jesse’s room - That he was so deep in his head he didn't notice what was going on around him and he felt like a goddamn moron for letting this bother him like that.

Jesse turned around before he wrapped his arms around Gabriel and held him - it was times like this when he hated not having skin to feel anything but he understood the message McCree was trying to convey to him. “No macho bullshit in my room, Gabe. Out with it.” He demanded, drawing a robotic sigh from Gabriel. 

Gabriel liked McCree, the guy proved his loyalty and ability to command competently along side him for almost three decades but he was too damn good at figuring out when something genuinely bothered him or if he was automating to just get through something tedious. Not even having facial expressions or refined finger movement didn't stop his co-commander from reading him correctly eighty percent of the time - numbers Jack probably wished he could achieve but that would require actual effort for him to see him more than once a day for five minutes in the hall to say good morning. Jesse was the ‘nice’ commander to Gabriel’s ‘mean’ commander routine, even though McCree insisted that Blackwatch like to call both of them ‘dad’ behind their backs.

“I’m still processing it all, McCree.” Gabriel offered, not really feeling comfortable venting his discomfort with going offline for a month, especially since there was a guard schedule set up with people Gabriel trusted or knew could be trusted to not harbor malicious feelings to him/be a double agent, like Genji Shimada. 

“Yeah…?” He murmurs softly in reply, “Cause you shut down a little while after we left the med bay - barely doing more than the bare minimum to be polite an’ well… I haven't seen ya this out of it since we went to yer ma’s funeral way back...” 

Gabriel let Jesse gently rock them both back and forth, leaning forward to press his face plate into the man’s serape, allowing him a few moments to figure out how he should proceed with this. How he wished he knew how soft the cloth was against his face right now, even though he knew Jesse neglected to wash the damn thing for God knows what reason. 

“Just in case I don't make it-” Gabriel started.

“Woah, woah, woah!!” Jesse gripped his shoulders and pulled him away from his body, concern plastered all over his face. “Them flags yer raising are just askin’ fer trouble to happen, Gabe!” He chuckled nervously. “Can we not talk like tha-”

“I love you, Jesse McCree. There. Simple. Done.” Gabriel said more to himself, especially when he looked at McCree and saw the fucking idiot plugging his ears with his index finger like a five year old being told something he didn't want to hear. “Okay. Nevermind. Clearly this is some kind of bad joke to you.” Gabriel dead panned, feeling a bit relieved when Jesse unplugged his ears and placed his hands back on his shoulders with urgency.

“Now, hold on there, Partner! I might have overreacted but ya’ll know how I feel about ‘heavy talk’ before serious missions!” Jesse practically sobbed, furthering Gabriel’s belief that he was a five year old in a fifty+ year old man’s body but didn’t hold it against him. There was a reason neither of them said anything before parting on missions and Gabriel was well aware of how not tempting fate worked out rather well for them along with being overly prepared for any situation. 

“Watching my brain case constitutes as a ‘serious mission’, McCree?” Gabriel teased playfully, drawing a heavy sigh of grief from the cowboy that made Gabe definitely sure that Jesse agreed he deserved being toyed with after that whole debacle with rejecting his confession timing.

“Of course it does, Gabe.” Jesse stated firmly as he looked up into Gabriel’s optic sensors. “I ain’t gonna say yer timing ain’t shit, cause it really is, but now ya’ll really got my nerves frayed thinking ‘bout how lonely and terrifying this whole ordeal will be.” He admitted hesitantly before standing straight up, keeping his hands on Gabe’s shoulders.

“I’m more concerned about neither of us watching Blackwatch for a whole month, McCree, than bad juju around confession timings…” Gabriel admitted, wanting to be sure his second in command actually heard him say it versus just assuming they were always on the same wavelength. Jesse’s frown at that wasn’t very reassuring to Gabriel either but he would let the man gather his thoughts before chewing him out. Sometimes McCree needed time for difficult stuff like this rather than expecting him to have a well thought out answer off the top of his head.

“Well… I have missions for everyone assigned throughout the month so technically there shouldn’t be any Blackwatch members on site here at the Zurich base while you’re out.” Jesse answered thoughtfully. “I figured it was the safest way to keep our… ‘suspects’ moving around but that doesn't exactly stop the Overwatch branch people from moving, even with Jack on watch duty in the evenings. Torbjorn and Liao are our ‘off the records’ security team support but it still has me on the edge that we might overlook something critical, even with Angela double checking meds that will be injected into the brain case and bein’ the one to make stem cell draws.” He paused for a moment and looked at Gabriel with concern. “Any angles ya think the enemy could exploit to get to ya?”

Gabriel hummed as he ran many scenarios in his mind from the perspective of the enemy and quickly landed on a more morbid one, especially if Jack was on watch duty. “Blow up the medbay. The enemy could blow up the med bay to take out Jack, you, and I when you guys do shift changes: Both commanders of Blackwatch and Overwatch killed in one go - it would be a cakewalk, even if we sent the Blackwatch agents away, like you said before. One of you needs to drop out of these shifts to make the scenario less tempting, McCree.” 

Jesse’s look turned more grim by the second as he looked away, making it obvious he thought of that as well but his feelings got in the way of a sound decision - one Gabriel knew far too well that he would probably be tempted to do the same if their roles were reversed.

“You or Jack, Jesse. You need to sit down with him tonight and have that hard conversation for all of us. I expect you to still be the co-commander I trust to do the right thing after all of these years, alright?” Gabriel spoke softly bringing a hand up to gently rest it on McCree’s shoulder.

Jesse’s gaze was still off to the side but he knew he listened to him and his call for action. “Yeah… I’ll talk to him ‘bout it.” He mumbled begrudgingly and took his hands off of Gabe’s shoulders. “Mind if I spend some time alone to think ‘bout my game plan?”

“Yes. Call me if you need any help with that.” Gabriel withdrew his hand off of Jesse’s shoulder and left the room, glancing back at the door as it closed behind him before leaving to go to his own quarters to nap on his power station for a bit.

\--

“Well, now! Here’s sleepin’ beauty himself!” Jesse chuckled in amusement, bringing Gabriel out of ‘sleep’ mode as his optic sensors came back online and saw the cowboy, himself, in a suit, leaning back against the wall beside the light switch with an amused smirk on his face.

Realization hit him quick as Gabriel stepped off the platform and glanced up at the clock on the wall that read 7:30pm - he missed the dinner and the pre-surgical briefing.

“The hell were you doing, McCree?! Did you tamper with my alarms again?!” Gabriel growled as he marched right up to McCree and grabbed him by the lapels. He might be a bit shorter than him in his drone shell but could easily lift the squirming cowboy who thought he could fuck around with him on this important night.

This wasn’t the first time McCree snuck into his room and tampered with a pilfered access remote from Torbjorn to screw with his internal clocks. It was the reason he kept SEVERAL alarm clocks hidden in his room but McCree just took THAT as a fucking challenge to hunt them all down and mess with them so they would play the theme song from ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’ to make an annoying echo effect around the room while they went off simultaneously. He really was a five year old idiot who acted like he NEEDED to schedule thirty minutes out of the day specifically to fuck with Gabriel and that really grated his nerves on days like this.

“H-Hold on, Gabe!” Jesse pleaded as he grabbed onto Gabriel’s wrists to try to support himself even though he knew at least ten different ways to reverse this situation and put Gabriel flat on his ass. “It was just a powerpoint presentation!” He quickly pulled a thumb drive recordable camera from his pocket and waved it in front of Gabriel’s visual sensors. “I got the presentation slides along with asking tons of questions to the staff fer about two hours - I really drilled into the details ya would wanna kno-OW!!”

Gabriel dropped Jesse flat on his ass on the floor after releasing him. “Out of ALL the powerpoint presentation I was forced to sit through in my entire life, THAT ONE was the one I wanted to attend to the most and you just fucking had to pick THIS ONE to be a complete ASS to me, Jesse McCree!?” He spat angrily. “Do you even KNOW what I wanted to ask?! Can you read my mind to the letter, McCree?! One hundred percent?! No!” Gabriel tossed his hand up in the air.

Jesse looked up at him, hurt clear on his face as he looked down at the thumb drive before gathering his resolve and shaking his head. “I think that ya were gonna look fer a reason to bail on the project.” He explained before pushing himself off the floor and looking at Gabriel firmly. “Yer right that I should not have intentionally made ya miss the dinner and the presentation, but yer scared, Gabe. Ain’t ya the one who says that it’s better to leave someone in the dark for their own sanity at times than to let them be overwhelmed by too much information? Yer the kind of guy who over analyzes everything and there ain’t no one in that room who would dare lie or conceal information from ya that ya wouldn’t go deep diving into their servers later to find out.” Jesse took a step closer to Gabriel and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Yer just gonna ask more questions to distract yerself from the inevitable and I ain’t gonna let you push away a good thing cause yer afraid. I ain’t gonna let anyone in that room or eventually outside of the room hear that Gabriel Reyes is anything BUT absolutely confident in his guards and the medical staff. I want our enemies afraid and nervous, Gabe. I want them to back out and you being there as a wreck wouldn’t help the situation at all.”

Gabriel clenched his fists by his side as McCree explained his rationale for excluding him from the presentation. He had a point that Gabriel was nervous about this whole ordeal and that he should trust Jesse to see the full picture as his second-in-command. Gabriel was terrified of everything that was going to happen but he needed to believe in Jesse to account for all the positives and negatives of the situation since he has personally asked Gabriel to call off missions before when he soundly made his opinion on risky ops before. His second-guessing saved them many times before while on missions too, so why not trust him once more to know what was ultimately going to be better for Gabriel in the long haul?

Maybe he was looking for an excuse to run from this all…

“What about me not showing up to the dinner or the presentation, McCree?” Gabriel asked calmly. “Isn’t that going to cause talks too?”

“Yeah, but I put the blame on the charging pad not doing its job and Torbjorn backed me up on it with some fabricated reports we made before going in. We said you were charging and couldn't make it, hence me recording everything.” Jesse explained, “It’s not like the charging platform isn’t a piece of shit as it is already so no one really asked anything more.”

Gabriel nodded his head, hoping that really was the case and watched as Jesse tucked the drive back into his suit pocket before placing his other hand on Gabriel’s shoulder. He honestly did appreciate Jesse’s concern for him and had to admit it did feel better knowing that he could leave everything up to him in times like this. 

Jesse tensed up as Gabriel leaned forward, his head resting against Jesse’s shoulder while he let out a relieved sigh. “Sometimes I think your flirting habits might honestly be the real deal when these kinds of things happen, McCree. I’m about 99.9% certain.” Gabriel mumbled softly to his co-commander. “Just… be honest with me for once?” He tried asking.

Things were quiet between them for a few moments, and he enjoyed hearing Jesse’s hands move to his back to pull Gabriel closer to him. Thing were obvious between them but Gabriel was always unsure about the complications of two commanders getting together and the fact that he was pretty much a robot. No one in their right mind would date an ugly ass robot.

“I… I don’t wanna jinx anything, alright?” Jesse hesitantly spoke. “But, to be completely honest, I wouldn’t mind breaking in those new lips of yers once the docs say it’s alright.” He chuckled in a light hearted manner.

“What’s stopping you from kissing me now, Cowboy?” Gabriel teased, knowing full well that Jesse would have done so years ago if he were actually interested but-

Jesse removed one of the hands he had on Gabriel’s back, tilting his robotic head up and leaning down to kiss him in the general area of where his mouth would be if the battlemech actually had human facial features. He was stunned by this - Wanting so badly know what it felt like to kiss someone after a forced twenty five year dry spell, especially since it was Jesse kissing him. Jesse drew away with a warm smile and gently traced the side of Gabriel’s face plate with his flesh index finger, he was pretty sure the noise his audio sensors were picking up was the paint flicking off the faceplate from the gesture but he still focused more on McCree than the noise.

“Was just waitin’ on ya to ask, Gabe.” Jesse remarked sweetly before drawing his hand back from Gabriel. “Didn’t want to rush ya or make ya uncomfortable.” He chuckled sheepishly as his eyes glance away from Gabe’s, making the commander rather annoyed but not because of his sudden shyness.

“You ‘didn’t want to rush anything’ and just dragged your feet for twenty-five years, McCree?” Gabriel deadpanned, earning a frown from the cowboy.

“Hey, now. If ya’ll had feelings fer me this whole time then it certainly ain’t just me who was ‘draggin’ their feet, Gabe.” Jesse easily countered.

“You have a point.” Gabriel admitted easily before waiting for Jesse to get the courage to look at him. “I was pretty sure no one would want to date a cold metal body so I never thought to ask before.” He admitted since they were both airing out their feelings in this moment. Jesse just stared at him like he grew another head in that moment, completely perplexed.

“What?! Gabe have you never-!?”

Gabriel quickly put his hand up to stop him. “Of course I know that omnic porn exists, McCree, but I’m not an omnic. You should know the differences between an assault drone and an actual omnic by now. I can’t be so easily upgraded, I don’t have tactile sensors in my fingers... This body was built not for peace but for an overwhelming army with the bare minimum put into its design for mass production. Drones, Bastions… My body is a reminder of a war not long ago and one that could very easily happen again.” He spoke solemnly as McCree nodded his head in understanding.

“That’s kind of why I also didn’t want you to come along to the meetin’. Didn’t want ya to feel survivor’s guilt.” Jesse spoke softly as he took off his hat and gently thumbed the brim of it. 

Gabriel sighed and had to admit that McCree really did have a good idea of his internal struggles. He was saved only because the Strike Team didn’t think they could survive without its commander at the reins, even if Jack was the one that took over anyways. At least the experience the medical team gained help revolutionize medicine to save people that otherwise could not be if he had not almost died.

“Weird question, Gabe.” Jesse quietly spoke up, drawing Gabriel out of his thoughts.

“Hm?”

“For tonight, will ya consider stayin’ with me in my room?” He asked almost hesitantly, surprising Gabriel with the request.

“I’m not sure if this body would be good for a one night st-”

“OH MY GOD, GABRIEL!” Jesse groaned as he buried his face in his hat, drawing an amused chuckle from Gabriel. “I want THAT but COME ON!” He practically cried in embarrassment.

“Yes, Jesse. I’ll stay with you tonight.” Gabriel answered, watching in delight as Jesse lifted his head from his hat with the happiest smile he had ever seen on the man’s face and slip the hat back on his head.

They both left Gabriel’s room together, McCree’s arm over Gabriel’s shoulder, as usual, while they happily chatted, making their way to McCree’s room to just spend the rest of the night drinking (McCree anyways) and reminiscing. It was awkward to try to fit into McCree’s bed with him, even when Jesse took his advice to wear something warm over his PJs since Gabriel’s body would be slow to warm up under the thin blankets. They slept chest to chest with McCree’s arm draped over Gabriel’s waist, holding him close through the night out of fear of him falling off the mattress in the middle of the night. It made Gabriel more fond than he already was of his co-commander and he felt safe turning himself to low-power mode, effectively letting him sleep in Jesse’s arm for the last night he would have this body.


	2. Seems so far away from where I've been and untrue but unafraid

Gabriel had to be pushed in a wheelchair to the med bay due to having a very low battery charge remaining in the morning and Jesse wouldn’t let anyone else have the honor of pushing his wheelchair, which caused several skeptical gazes to glance at the both of them. 

So fucking what if they had to go to McCree’s room and get him for surgery? Gabriel certainly didn’t have to answer to any questions he didn’t want to answer and Jack hardly seemed to care as he walked along side both of them, wanting to chat with Gabe before his month-long blackout would begin. Everyone was in a good mood so why bog it down by talking about shitty topics that no one wanted to talk about now that the promised day had arrived?

They sat Gabriel down in his maintence chair that was likely brought over from the engineering department, and started working on hooking his brain case up to several machines after they got the metal cap of the drone’s head off. He was nervous, very nervous, even with Jesse sitting down next to him on a stool and talking to him to distract him. Jack left after ten minutes, wishing him well and promising to support him as he could, even if he was no longer on guard rotation anymore.

“See you on the flipside, Gabe.” Jack smiled warmly as he turned to leave.

“See you, Jack.” Gabriel replied, and watched him leave the med bay with a few of his men, leaving just himself, Angela, Jesse, and the medical team around him in the medbay. It felt a lot like their last mission together during the Omnic Crisis, right before he was blown to kingdom come but only the opposite was about to happen. Hopefully it will be a good omen this time…

“We are about to disconnect you from your visual and audio sensors, Gabriel.” Angela spoke up, making Jesse visibly freeze for a second, throwing them both off since they assumed they would have longer to talk.

This was it. 

He would be disconnected from the world for a whole month and leaving his life in the hands of Jesse along with the rest of his guard rotation. 

“Hey.”

Jesse’s voice caught Gabriel’s attention as he glanced over at him the best he could with his head now firmly locked in place in the chair.

“What?” Gabriel asked, trying to keep his voice neutral and not show how afraid he was in this vulnerable moment.

“I’ll see ya when you wake up, alright?” Jesse offered with a reassuring smile. “We’ll have a lot of good things to talk about then.”

Right.

“Don’t let me down.” Was all Gabriel had to offer before voluntarily shutting off his visual sensor. “I’m ready, Doc.”

“Sweet dreams, Gabriel.” Angela spoke kindly before he truly was disconnected from the world.

\--

He dreamed a lot during his month-long hiatus from life.

Gabriel mostly dreamed of McCree and, for his eventual inescapable nightmares; the moments leading up to his own death during the Omnic Crisis.

The main problem with dreaming for so long was that his mind started playing ‘wake up’ dreams on him and he was always so sure that each time it got more intricate before his dream would inevitably switch to something else.

Also the ‘dream’ McCree was a bit too perfect for Gabriel to really consider that he actually did wake up but it was all in good fun to fuck around with the fake when he realized that. Gabe guessed that meant he was having a ‘lucid’ dream or whatever doctors called them if he could somewhat control what he was doing in them?

He still didn’t go as far as inappropriately touching McCree just in case the off-chance he really was being woken up. Cause that would be a very embarrassing way to sink a twenty-five year plus career by sexually harassing his second-in-command in front of everyone.

“...be?” A far off sounding male voice was heavily muffled, making Gabriel assume that this was another strange dream transition but there were suddenly a lot more that seemed to hit him from every side.

Not voices but heavy gunfire and yelling.

No no no! This better NOT be fucking happening!!

The ground was rumbling hard under him, the sensation almost making him want to throw up from how sharp everything felt, and especially how overwhelmingly loud things were. There was screeching of metal and gunfire along with so much smoke that he was having trouble breathing.

It was the familiar sound of Peacekeeper, so much crisper sounding but still recognizable, that really cemented the idea that he was now awake along with the dread of being aware that they were under attack. 

“Visual systems will be online in one minute, Angela!” Someone yelled next to him on his right and Peacekeeper kept on singing in the background along with the sound of what had to be a pulse rifle near where Jesse was.

“We don’t have time! Unplug him NOW!” A deeper gravely voice spat.

“Are you fucking SERIOUS, Seventy-Six?!” A younger, hispanic accent shot back. “Like HELL we’re gonna disconnect him before he gets his fucking eyes back! Our agreement was we get Gabriel Reyes back, one hundred percent!”

Wait. What?

Who’s ‘Seventy-Six’? What agreement?! Was Talon attacking the base to get to him?! He didn't have time to think beyond that as he became aware that his eyes were actually open the entire time and just now starting to feed in some visuals, although they were seriously blurry. An alarm sounded just as he could finally make out colors and shapes of a light fixture above him and then the lights suddenly shut off, the generators nearby whining as they powered down.

“That’s your answer, Sombra!” The deep voiced male growled in annoyance. “We move. NOW!”

A woman clicked her tongue before sighing heavily in annoyance. “Fine! But I want his eyes fixed at the next base we come across, alright?!”

“Quit runnin’ yer mouths and get Gabe hooked up to the portable life support shit already!” Jesse barked at them and Gabriel felt his chest squeeze painfully from hearing his voice, it felt as if he had forgotten what the other man sounded like since the McCree of his dreams sounded different. “Reinhardt and Torb can’t hold the frontline much longer!”

“I need another five minutes to make sure his body is stable enough on the emergency systems, Jesse!” Angela demanded, her finger rapidly tapping away. “There’s no point to us coming here if he can’t survive on what little life support we have available! This tech is outdated enough as it is!” 

“Is he even awake yet?!” Genji’s synthetic voice was something he didn’t expect to her. Wasn’t he suppose to be in Nepal or something?

“Tell Torb and Rein to fall back to point C with Hanzo and Winston. If Angie needs five more minutes then we give her five more minutes!” Jesse ordered and the gruff man from earlier begrudgingly repeated the order over his com before there was a sudden shuffling of feet to Gabriel’s left. “How’s he holdin’ up? His body ain’t rejectin’ his brain, right?” He asked, completely out of breath as there was a lull in combat for now.

“Gabriel is… His brain activity is within normal parameters for a conscious person but my hands are too busy to a physical check up to confirm anything. He could very well be aware of what is going on.” Angela told Jesse hesitantly, likely not wanting to give him too much hope of him being conscious when she couldn’t confirm it through the old fashioned methods. “Ah! I wouldn’t suggest touching him, Jesse! He is overstimulated as it is to the point of pain since we had to activate all of his nerve endings at once on his skin when he isn’t used to it!”

“I-! Nnn…! It’s just been so long…!” Jesse spoke with a heavily strained voice, like he was on the brink of tears, making Gabriel wanting so badly to call him an ‘idiot’ or SOMETHING so he would know that he was awake and still loved him.

But still… Was a month really that long to him? He has gone out on missions with Blackwatch for two months or longer before and they were just fine when he got back. Didn’t he get to see him everyday anyways?

“Just got word from point C that Torb and Reinhardt made it intact but we seriously don’t have much time, McCree.” Seventy-Six growled in annoyance, a synthetic edge to his voice that had Gabriel vaguely wondering if he knew it.

“I know that! It’s just- It’s just been a long time coming, is all.” Jesse admitted with a heavy heart, making Gabriel wonder if he really was just out for a month if Jesse sounded as tired as he actually was.

“Okay! All signs are positive and we can start moving him to the transport!” Angela spoke confidently before Gabriel heard a soft hiss and all the voices in the room become heavily muffled. Maybe she activated a protective barrier over his body or something? He felt his stomach shift as the gurney levitated upwards and then moved forward.

Wow. Okay. He’s a fucking payload then. Now, if only his vision wasn’t so shitty and he could move a fucking muscle then he might not feel like being on the verge of a panic attack.

“Hey, Sweetheart. This thing on?” Jesse’s voice piped in from somewhere, clear as can be though he could also hear the sounds of heavy footsteps and chatter from the other party members as well. “Well, hopefully yer awake as Angela says you are cause it would be kind of embarrassing to talk to myself the whole time we transport you, Boss.” He chuckled in amusement earning several groans from around him. “How bout ya’ll mind yer own business and let a fella have some peace fer once?!”

If Gabriel could snicker at the cowboy’s sudden embarrassment then he totally would have.

“Anyways, it’s been five years since we disconnected you from the world cause Talon decided to launch an all-out assault on the Zurich base three weeks into the procedure. A lot of good people died in the explosion but Jack and Reinhardt were able to dig both of us out of the rubble before we all decided to split up. Both you and Jack were declared ‘dead’ and the UN passed a resolution to ban Overwatch so that was the reason we all had to split up. Jack didn’t exactly fare too well in the explosion, tough sonuvabitch he is, and Angela had to work on fixin’ him up before we could even think about seeing if we could salvage parts of your body at the Zurich base.” He explained solemnly, and Gabriel was having trouble believing this all happened. Was he really asleep for five years? It felt more like maybe an hour or two…

“Contact at four O’Clock!” The gruff older man spat further in the distance and Jesse hissed in annoyance before the audio feed was promptly shut off, leaving Gabriel staring up at the darkened ceiling as muzzle flashes and muffled gunfire littered the area. 

He wanted to scream out as the gurney was suddenly shoved to the side, his nerves making his body feel like it was literally on fire, and the hispanic woman cursing at them all for violently shoving the floating cart - she and Angela likely working on keeping him stable or the like. Was the hispanic woman a friend of Angela's or maybe a mercenary medic if those existed?

“Sombra! His stress levels are rising, give him a dose of sedatives! I have to go to work, keep me up to date on his condition!” Angela’s muffled yell came through the barrier along with a hiss of annoyed Hispanic insults that weren’t directed at Angela.

“How many CCs and what drug?!” The woman yelled, making it obvious that she wasn’t a doctor or medic but merely someone assisting Angela with no medical experience. Angela shouted back something from far off that he could quite make out, even if he wanted to. “Gotcha! Administering now!”

A few moments later, Gabriel felt the nerve pain subside a great deal and felt the gurney begin to move again even though gunfire was still peppering the area as muted sounding as it was within the barrier to him. He hated being aware of his helplessness and the fact that they were all risking their lives to bring him back. It made him think of all the selfless acts Jack pulled off during the Crisis and his chest suddenly felt heavy as he wondered if his friend was okay. Things were always hard between them after Jack got the promotion but Jack always did try to bridge the gap between them than letting the flames of spite claim their friendship. If Jesse wasn’t lying to him then Jack was likely injured when he was trying to dig them out of the med bay…

Where was he now?

“Erm, sorry bout that.” Jesse chuckled sheepishly as his voice piped through back into the barrier. “Talon wants to collect ya pretty bad, especially after we managed to reconnect yer brain case to yer new body so there might be several delays as we try to get ya to the helipad for evac, Gabe. But, yeah, it’s good to finally see ya again after all this time apart. Kind of... Since I’ve been keepin’ yer braincase safe this whole time, so, technically we weren’t apart the entire five years, ya know?” He chuckled nervously.

More gunfire followed in the distance, a muted rattling of heavy caliber guns caused them to divert the gurney to cover as the line between him and McCree went dead again on the com - The Cowboy’s muted yells caused Gabriel much anguish as he knew how risky this entire operation was. He didn’t want to be left behind, not at all, but he didn’t want to risk any of their lives for his if they could just detach his braincase and try again later when he didn’t need to have two medics on him. 

The gurney shot forward suddenly, a loud thumping overhead gradually intensifying as they drew closer to the source and it drowning out all the yelling and gunfire around him. He was so heavily drugged that he couldn’t even panic even if he wanted to in the several moment before the sound suddenly decreased in intensity and he felt the gurney snap into place before there was a sudden pressure on his internal organs that felt way too terrifying to comprehend until it subsided just as fast.

“Okay. We’re finally clear now, Partner!” Jesse’s voice piped back in, the man sound relieved and tired as fuck as he let out an ‘oof’ (probably sitting down somewhere?). “We’re on the dropship right now and everyone’s okay, fer the most part.” He chuckled reassuringly regardless of how not reassuring the whole thing was at all. Fucking Jesse McCree… “Anyways, we’re heading to our home base in Gibraltar right now and the trip should be ‘bout twenty minutes since Lena has this ship in hyper drive to shake off the Talon hawks on our tails but I’m sure we’ll get there relatively in one piece.”

Again, not reassuring at all…

Why did he make this guy his second-in-command again? Oh wait, he didn’t.

If Gabriel was capable of rolling his then he would probably do so from how casual the cowboy was being about this whole very serious thing. There was some muted muttering around the gurney that Gabriel could barely pick up through the barrier and it was apparent that McCree was sitting nearby, discussing something with Angela and that hispanic woman that Jesse didn’t want him to hear since he clicked off his mic. He could hear Jesse’s deep voice going ‘Seriously?’ in disgust about something before Angela quickly shushed him to keep his voice down before he heard the cowboy’s mic click back on. Jesse heaved a heavy sigh before speaking, sounding more emotionally drained then before.

“Alright. We’re gonna be putting ya back to sleep for a bit so we won’t have to keep dosing ya with high-end pain meds that we apparently can’t afford to keep ya on fer yer nerve pains. The plan is to restart the whole process in the safety of the Gibraltar medbay since we know the body ain’t defective after five years of cryostasis. Just gonna put ya down fer a little nap, is all, alright?” Jesse tried to sound positive about it but he could understand his hesitation in doing a full restart. Hopefully it meant skipping the three week quarantine and that it really would be something like a three hour nap instead. Gabriel could only pray that his luck would improve after a five year long sleep but wouldn’t be surprised if other things fucked up along the way.

All he knew was that Jesse’s voice in his ear slowly faded out in the distance, the drugs likely taking effect quickly since he had no real resistance at this point and realized it was going to be a bitch to rebuild all of this was done…


	3. Imaginations come and sweep the shores of my mind

“Well, now. Looks like Sleepin’ Beauty is finally comin’ ‘round.” 

Gabriel groaned softly at that light jab, unable to really move or do much as his eyelids felt very heavy as he tried to open them. The lights in the room were way too bright, making him clench them shut as he groaned again, rolling his head to the side before something moved it back to the center. 

“Easy now, Gabe.” Jesse lightly chastised him as he heard chair legs slide back against a tiled floor. He was in the medbay of the Gibraltar branch, right? Was Jesse sitting down next to him by his bedside? 

“Jesse?” A deep asian voice spoke from somewhere near where Jesse was and Gabriel heard McCree chuckle nervously.

“Can we talk ‘bout that conversation later, Han? I need to get Angie and Winston over here since Gabe is conscious.”

A deep ‘hm’ answered Jesse’s question and Gabriel heard the tell tale sounds of boots and spurs moving away from the bedside rather excitedly before a door promptly slid opened and closed. Just one pair of feet that were obviously Jesse’s and not the stranger who was sitting next to/near him - someone Gabriel did not know.

The room was quiet except for the light beeping and humming of medical equipment behind the bed. It would be very relaxing if not for the stranger present. Was he a new member of Overwatch or whatever they were calling themselves now? In five years it would make sense they would bring on new members to the team, hell, Gabriel expected that to happen but it was still so strange that Jesse had this guy in the hospital room with him. He kind of wanted to apologize for Jesse just ditching his friend like that, especially if they were in the middle of a conversation before Gabriel woke up. The guy should have SOME manners, after all, he was still Jesse’s superior.

“Your timing was intentional, wasn’t it.” The asian man murmured in slight annoyance, instantly putting this guy into Gabriel’s ‘asshole’ bin in his mind before the doors slid back open with multiple feet filing into the room. The boots with spurs happily crossed the floor back over to the bedside, the chair next to the bed sliding back a bit before a familiar clacking of heels approached the bedside as there was murmuring of hushed voices talking in the background.

“Gabriel? Are you with us now?” Angela’s chipper voice was a huge relief to hear as he tried to open his mouth, strangled noises coming from it instead of spoken words. “Oh, good! A very good sign that your brain remembers how to do some motions with an organic body!” She cheerfully spoke as he heard several taps on a tablet surface and the voices whispering excitedly in the background.

“I’ve heard dying cats that sounded healthier than that.” A gravelly deep voice commented sarcastically.

“Fuck you, Jack.” Jesse huffed, mirroring Gabriel's sentiments exactly though a bit more in a light-hearted manner than he would have preferred. 

There was chuckles from the old guard; mostly Ana and Reinhardt’s voices were the ones he recognized but there were quite a few younger-sounding people's voices mixed in that he didn't recognize. Still, it felt good knowing the old guard was still around even if there was an influx of new recruits around that he was going to inevitably be introduced to once he could do more than be a useless piece of meat on a hospital bed.

“It’s good to have you back with us, Gabriel.” Ana spoke, her voice aged like fine wine to his ears with that spark of mischief still in it that he adored. “A lot has happened in these five years but I’m sure we’ll assist you however we can to get you caught right back up.” 

He felt something move on his face, not really understanding what his body was doing before he heard Ana coo happily with Reinhardt.

“I told you he could smile in a non-sarcastic manner, Reinhardt.” Ana chuckled happily as Gabriel felt his face tighten uncomfortably where his cheeks were.

“Facial muscles seem to be working properly so far.” Angela added in excitement, making Gabriel groan again.

This was torture. Pure torture. Not having a body for thirty years caught him completely off guard the moment he was properly placed back into a functioning one and they were all having fun at his expense.

“You owe me twenty, Torb.” Jack smirked from what Gabriel knew of the man as Lindholm grumble in annoyance, the crinkling of a bill passed from the Swedish engineer to the Strike Commander - Money that he would part from Jack the moment he could form a fist to break his perfect nose with for placing that kind of a bet on him.

“Well, at least the operation to get him the body was a success now.” Torbjorn commented with a relieved sigh, making many others murmur in agreement with him until a certain loud mouth cowboy interjected.

“Now, hold on there, Partner. Pretty sure the operation to get the body and reattach him has BEEN a success, there was just no guarantee of the amount of functionality he would have after we started him back up again after the body had been placed in cryostasis. To act like the mission had no value up until this point is a damn insult to how far we had to go to get it in the first place.” Jesse scolded them all with a degree of disgust in his voice.

“No one was saying that it wasn’t worth the risk, Jesse.” Jack reassured him but that didn’t seem to be enough for the cowboy.

“Yeah, right! It took us five goddamn years to bring Gabe back! Five. Fucking. Years!” Jesse spat harshly. “Functionality of the synthetic body wouldn’t have been a goddamn issue if we just took the fucking body with us instead of leaving it for Talon to nab at the base! Also, don’t you fucking say that we didn’t have the time or resources to get the damn thing back from Talon when we were sitting on the fucking information for four years that I personally went and got myself!”

“It was too risky for us, McCree.” Winston spoke up. “Overwatch was dismantled and banned by the UN and you knew they were watching us like hawks! How were we supposed to explain the body?! Gabriel Reyes was accused as the culprit for the explosion at Zurich and no amount of arguing or proof otherwise was going to help us when the world turned against us! Keeping his braincase moving at all times so Talon wouldn’t get him was more important than trying to recover the body!” He argued reasonably.

“Just stop arguing about this!” Ana stepped in before Jesse could get the next word in and took a deep breath before speaking more calmly. “What is done is done, Jesse. You have every right to feel the way you do but constantly badgering the others who needed more convincing will not help mend our already strained bonds over this. Gabriel is back and we should all celebrate that fact together.”

Huh. So there was a divided front on bringing him back or, more precisely, the timing of when it would be best to bring him back. Makes sense but hell does that piss him off at the same time to know that as well.

Jesse grumbled something under his breath before Gabriel heard a chair creak nearby to his right, likely McCree sitting down in said chair with his arms over his chest like a scolded child. The man could get childish like that at times, especially when it dealt with personal matters he was forced to shut his mouth on to save face, and it was understandable. Being in Blackwatch and second-in-command gave Jesse a lot of freedom to do what was right but hell you can’t go up against Ana Amari and not feel burned when she wins an argument or brings it to a consensus you don’t agree with. Kind of sucks that he can’t reach over and put a reassuring hand on Jesse’s shoulder like he would like to in this moment though. 

Hell, there was a lot he wanted to do with Jesse McCree now that he had a soft body as opposed to an assault drone’s shell… Mostly kiss him and call him an idiot since there had to be a backlog for the past five years that he wasn’t able to call Jesse out on his stupid shit. 

God, did he miss hearing Jesse’s voice…

His face was hurting and his throat felt uncomfortably tight as he wasn’t quite sure if something was wrong with the body that was causing him pain. The corners of his eyes stung but something brushed aside the wetness as Gabriel realized that either everyone left the room or was being unnaturally quiet for some reason.

“You okay, Gabriel?” Angela asked softly, the weight of something moving across his cheek in a comforting manner helped ease the tension in his throat as he tried to ease his breathing.

How was he suppose to know? He can’t really remember having a body and all the weird pains and muscle tension that came with it, at least not this vividly. Also why was she asking him a question when he clearly is unable to say anything in return? 

“Doc, what’s the prognosis?” Jesse asked curiously to change the subject, still a bit rough around the edges from earlier but significantly calmer than before.

Angela hummed at that as she tapped away on her tablet. “He’s stable and has been for the past two weeks but as for things like fine motor skills, mobility limitations and other such fine details, I cannot begin to guess until he’s well enough to sit up on his own.” She informs them all. “It’s best that we approach this with a ‘day by day’ mentality than expecting him to do ‘xyz by the end of the year’ approach - Does that make sense?”

“Yeah, it does. Best not to rush anything and see what his needs are fer extra surgery and the like.” Jesse adds, and it does nothing to help smooth over Gabriel’s anxiety with the whole thing. 

The body was in cryostasis for a few years so it would make sense that not everything might work out correctly and need augmentation, right? Better to have fully functional pair of eyes and legs from the get-go while he’s still fresh in the new body rather than dealing with parts that didn’t work right from the start. This WAS suppose to be his big present from Overwatch, right? It’s not like he was born in it or had history with it that he would want certain parts to stay limited in their ability like a battle scar. 

Fuck that shit!

He wanted to run again! He wanted to go swimming! He wanted to run missions by his men’s side and fight the good fight too! 

Gabriel lived twenty-five years in a robot body that could barely climb stairs efficiently and of course he would want the best-of-the-best if it was offered to him now! Give him the consent papers cause he’s going to slam his stamp of approval on that shit immediately!

“Anyways, I think we should give Gabriel some space since I would like to run more tests to see how his body is functioning and allow him some privacy.” Angela spoke up after she cleared her throat. That’s when Gabriel heard several shuffling of footsteps out of his hospital room door and Angela’s heavy sigh of relief when the door closed. “I know you want to stay with him now that he is conscious, Jesse, but I would prefer it if you and Hanzo would find some other activities to keep you preoccupied.”

‘Hanzo’, huh…

“Doc, come on. Can’t I talk to him fer a bit?” Jesse quietly pleaded with a rather pathetic sounding voice.

“Jesse, I need to tend to him as my patient and he needs to rest.” Angela spoke firmly and there was a shuffle of feet that didn’t sound like boots on the tile floor.

“She has a point, Jesse. I’m sure she’ll call for you when you can visit him.” Hanzo spoke reassuringly, drawing a soft sigh from the cowboy that made Gabriel’s heart ache, especially when he heard him stand up.

“Yer both right… I probably need to get some sleep anyways.” Jesse admitted with an exhausted edge to his voice. “Comm me the moment anything else happens, alright, Angie?”

“I will, Jesse. Sleep well, okay?” Angela offered sympathetically and Gabriel couldn’t help but feel depressed as Jesse left the room with Hanzo. Jesse was the one who promised that they would have a lot to talk about when they woke up, right…?

\--

The lights in the room were heavily dimmed the next time McCree came in for visiting hours later in the day, allowing Gabriel to more comfortably open his eyes even though it still hurt to try to see through them. Light sensitivity was a huge bitch and will be for a while as he got used to having eyeballs again. 

Jesse happily pulled up a chair next to Gabriel’s bedside, making Gabe feel a bit relieved that it was just them alone in the room this time. What he didn’t expect was the guitar case McCree set down on the visitor’s table in the room. 

“Hey, Gabe! Glad to see those pretty eyes of yers are functioning well!” Jesse chuckled brightly as he unlatched the guitar case and pulled out his ol’ Spanish guitar before taking a seat back on the chair to set it on his lap. Gabriel felt his heart rate pick up as he watched Jesse fold his arms over the top of his guitar and rest his chin on top of them. God, he looked so handsome and a smile has never seemed so captivating on Jesse like it does now. “Pretty browns… I honestly feel like I’m fallin’ in love with ya all over again, Gabe.” He admitted sheepishly, ducking his head lightly as there was no way he didn’t heart Gabriel’s heart rate pick up from saying those sweet words to him.

“Okay, now I’m just embarassin’ myself.” Jesse stammered bashfully as he looked away for a moment. “I just-... I wrote a few songs fer ya when things got tough durin’ our five year conscious separation.” He paused before looking over at Gabriel. “Winston said that would be the best way to describe our situation, ya know. ‘Together but not aware of one or another’? I spent a lot of time talkin’ to Angela and Winston… It was hard to cope with not havin’ ya’ll around even though you were usually in my lap.” Jesse admitted as his finger traced the side of the guitar idly for a few moments before he sat up properly. “Anyways, been wanting to play fer ya and managed to sneak my baby into the medbay when Angie wasn’t lookin’. I’ll just play some light tunes so I don’t overwhelm yer sensory systems, alright, Partner?” He winked playfully before holding the guitar properly against his chest as he started strumming a few chords to warm up, his eyes more on Gabriel to adjust how loudly he was playing so it was more comfortable for Gabriel to listen to.

Gabriel relaxed, watching McCree begin to play an actual song this time after adjusting his strumming volume several times over the course of a minute. They were your usual spanish love songs judging by the chord progressions and it made Gabriel smile warmly as he felt a fond nostalgia while Jesse played. 

As shameless as a flirt Jesse was, he was always shy about going about other ways to show his interests in others that did not involve smooth pick-up lines and it was actually quite rare for him to pull out the guitar. It was one of the first few signs that Jesse McCree might actually be serious about his crush on Gabriel since he didn’t even know McCree owned a guitar much less knew how to play it well. He remembered how nervous Jesse was the first time, standing at his door in the middle of the night with his guitar in hand, pushing his way into Gabe’s room before quickly closing the door behind him and forcing Gabriel to ‘hear him out’ by starting to play right then and there. Might have been the first time Gabriel considered the thought of being with someone else, regardless of his status as an android.

Gabriel laid his head back on the pillow and just listened to the light strumming of the guitar, loving how heart-felt the songs were as his eyelids grew heavier the further McCree got into the song. He fell asleep to the sweet song of a man he couldn’t wait to be with when he got better, making up for the five years lost and the physical contact he was starved from for half of his life.

\--

It would be a week later that Gabriel was in the process of slowly being weaned off his respirator and given small amounts of water to drink while Angela and Jesse helped him. Gabriel’s bed would be slanted upwards to support his back while Angela slipped the mask off him - 30 minutes without the mask and then he was given a bit of water with a syringe to try to see if he could swallow it without any trouble. It was mostly enough to wet his dried out tongue throughout the day since his only other times where water touched his mouth was when they brushed his teeth once in the morning and once in the evening.

Jesse sat beside him on the bed, taking the needleless syringe Angela offered him, and smirking at Gabriel in amusement as he tried to pose like a pin up nurse girl, chest pushed forward and everything. “Hey there, Sweet Stuff. Ready fer yer shot?” He asked in a coy manner, winking at Gabriel suggestively as Gabe rolled his eyes but otherwise smiled at how playful Jesse was feeling today. Jesse placed one hand on the back of Gabe’s bald head and leaned his head back before Gabriel opened his mouth for McCree, rolling his eyes once again as Jesse let out a rather inappropriate whistle.

“Jesse, if you can’t behave then I won’t let you assist in his rehabilitation.” Angela chastised Jesse rightfully since McCree just had to sexually harass him when he couldn’t deck his lights out.

“Alright, alright! I’ll be more proper, Ange.” Jesse replied as he guided the syringe to the underside of Gabriel’s tongue and pushed out a few drops of water under it. Gabriel closed his mouth and slowly swished the tiny amount of water in his mouth like it was mouthwash before swallowing it down with no real issue. He opened his mouth for the next spritz of water and McCree had to cover his mouth as an obviously inappropriate thought crossed his mind once more.

If he thinks he’s getting his dicked sucked first when he’s out of the medbay then he’s got another thing coming. 

Literally.

Even with the childish snickering, McCree finished up giving him water dutifully, and Angela slipped the oxygen mask back on, leaving both of them alone in the room as Gabriel let his head rest back against the pillow. Jesse kept his spot right up next to Gabriel on the tiny medical bed after he reclined it back a bit so Gabriel could slip off to sleep if he wanted to. The thing about having a flesh body was that he wasn’t used to things like fatigue or seemingly random bouts of moments where he just nodded off. Angela was working on finding the root cause of the problem since he always had the exact opposite in his early twenties and found it difficult to sleep at all at times.

There was quite a few things in his new body that needed to be replaced; a few of them being his left kidney, the damaged nerves in his right arm, his fourth toe on his left foot, and whatever hormone stimulates hair growth. Not as bad as it could be considering it could have been treated a lot more roughly by the explosion at Zurich and when it was in Talon’s grasp. 

He was scheduled to correct the nerve damage in his arm and toe next week but the rest of the issues were a lower priority for the cash strapped new Overwatch and likely wouldn't be addressed unless his kidney causes problems somehow. The sleeping disorder would have to be studied so Angela could find the root cause and address it whenever they find out what was causing it and if it was temporary or not. 

Gabriel sighed softly, it would get better for him from this point on. Angela planned on introducing him to applesauce again if he didn't choke himself on water from today to tomorrow - something Jesse was really looking forward to do, oddly enough. Gabriel guessed it was intimate to feed your partner but they didn't exactly have that ‘talk’ yet, right?

They’re still in limbo when it comes to their relationship until he gets his damn mouth to work like it’s suppose to without making embarrassing strangled noises, even though he was going to starting to take classes with a speech therapist in two weeks. It was humiliating to try to talk and he wished things would speed up so he could tell Jesse how much he meant to him.

Jesse smiled warmly at Gabriel and gently draped an arm over Gabe’s shoulder, both of their sides pressing together comfortably as they relaxed in bed and watched some shows on the holo tv set across the room. Gabriel enjoyed the man’s warmth and how close they were together, it was nice being able to feel the firm but soft pressure against his side for once rather than just imagining it when he was a robot. This was going to be his new life from now on and he would be able to more intimately enjoy it with the others, especially McCree.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the interest in this story guys! Please keep leaving your feedback if you really enjoy this story!

**Author's Note:**

> If you like this please leave a review telling me what you like! The story is 85% finish and took me forever to write so please help a writer out?


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